Rafael Devers hit a double to drive in the winning run in the 10th inning, marking his third hit of the game, and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Wednesday.
Zack Kelly (4-1) pitched a scoreless 10th inning and worked out of a big jam to earn the win. Danny Jansen hit a tying single in the sixth, and the Red Sox won two out of three games in the series against the Mariners, who are in a close race with Houston for the top spot in the AL West.
“It feels like a relief, to be honest with you,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “To win the series, it feels good.”
Josh Rojas homered for Seattle, and Dylan Moore had an RBI single.
Tyler O’Neill was the automatic runner at second base when Devers came up to bat in the bottom of the 10th. With an open base at first and left-hander Jhonathan Díaz pitching, Seattle manager Scott Servais decided to pitch to the left-handed Devers — and he made the Mariners pay.
Devers hit a 2-0 slider from Díaz (0-1) off the bottom part of the Green Monster in left-center field. The ball bounced away from Seattle’s outfielders, allowing O’Neill to score easily.
This was Boston’s fourth walk-off win of the season, and Devers’ first game-ending hit since June 14, 2021.
“It felt very good to help the team win, and happy we were able to win this series,” Devers said. “We need to win every game, every series in the second half. Winning is very important in the second half and I was very happy to be able to do it.”
Kelly threw a wild pitch in the top of the 10th that allowed automatic runner Cal Raleigh to reach third base with no outs. But Kelly struck out Mariners newcomer Justin Turner and got Leo Rivas to ground out, keeping Raleigh at third base.
After Luke Raley was hit by a pitch and Moore walked, loading the bases, Mitch Garver grounded out to end the inning.
“We had a lot of chances to break the game open,” Servais said. “In a game like this, you’re just one big hit away from turning things around, but we didn’t lack effort. I like the way we’re playing. The at-bats are improving. We just didn’t get the hits with runners in scoring position today.”
Boston scored first in the game when Masataka Yoshida walked with two outs, advanced to third on Devers’ double, and then scored on a wild pitch by George Kirby.
Moore tied the game with a two-out single in the fourth after Raleigh led off with a double. Rojas hit a home run to center field in the fifth inning.
After a one-out double in the sixth inning, Dominic Smith scored when Jansen hit an RBI single, knocking Kirby out of the game.
Kirby allowed two runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, ending his streak of nine quality starts. This was the longest streak by a Mariners pitcher since Félix Hernández had 16 straight in 2014.
“They’ve got a lot of good hitters who work the counts,” said Kirby, who threw a first-pitch knuckleball in honor of former Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who died of cancer in October. “I wasn’t getting many swings at my splitter. I would have liked more swings and misses, but they made it tough today.”
Boston starter Brayan Bello pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up two runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts.
Lucas Sims, making his Red Sox debut after being traded from Cincinnati on Tuesday, came in for Bello with runners on the corners and escaped the situation when Turner grounded out with the bases loaded.
